Improvement in piano actions



tiene i da-imi www@ f @met Mesem-M- @Him FRAZEE B. MCGREGOR, OF PONTIAC,MICHIGAN.

Letters Patent No. 109,921, dated December 6, 1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN PIANO ACTIONS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making pari: of thesame.

To all whom it muy concern:

Be it known that I, FRAzEn B. MCGREGOR, of the city of Pontiac, in thecounty of Oakland and in the State of Michigan, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Pianos; and do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and lenact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of referencemarked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in the arrangement of an adjustablename-board and in that of the key, hammer, anddamper, which severalarrangements will be hereinafter more. fully described.

. In order to enable others s killed in the art to make and use myinvention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation,referring to the annexed drawings whichforin a part of thisspecification and which represent a sectional side view of my piano.

A represents the frame of a piano made of any suitable size andmaterial.

The name-board B in the front part ofthe piano consists of a frame withglass, and is made so as to be movable independent of the action, thatis, it can be taken out without disturbing any part ofthe mechanism.

The advantages of having the name-board of glass are obvious, as by thatmeans the operator can look into the piano wit-hout removing the top andsee if anything is out of order.

'Ihe key O is supported cn a cross-bar near the center of the frame, andon the upper side of the key, above the said cross-bar, a slotted block,D, is secured.

In the slot of this block one end ot' a semicircnlar block, H, ispivoted, the other end pointing toward the rea-r, and the under side ofsaid block H is concave, as shown in the drawings.

A rod, a, is secured'to the rear side of the said block H, and to therear end of the rod o is fastened the hammer E.

This hammer rests on a board, I, which I call a combination bar, as bymy arrangement it dispenses with two bars generally used, namely, thehammerrest and damper-check.

On the inner or rear end of the key C is a movable fulcrum or support,G, placed, in which the lever I" is pivote-d.

The rear end of this lever rests against the under side ofthecombination-bar I, and the front end against the concave under side ofthe semicircular block H,

so that in pressing the front end of the key down the rear end is thrownup, which carries the front end of the lever F upward, throwing thehammer-E up against the string.

It will be seen that by moving thefnlcrum G either toward the inner,rear, or outer frontend ot' the key, and then move the 1combination-brnI to correspond, I can get or give a light or heavy blow, according t-othe size and heft of string to be struck.

In the rear end of thepiano is pivoted the damperfranie L, inthe rearside of which a lever, K, is pivoted. Said lever extends forward, andits front end rests on the rear end ot' the key C.

From the upper side of the lever Kv, and about the center thereof', arod, b, connect-s it with the damper d.

It will thus be seen that at the same time as -the key 0 operates thehannnorll, it raises the damper (Z up from the string.'

The damper can also be operated from the center of the lowerside of thepiano by means ofa level', M, pivoted by some suitable means on thebottom of the piano, andconnected at its rear end bya rod, e, to therear end of the damper-frame L, so that by pressing the front end of thelever M upward the-frontend of the dan'lper-frame is also moved upward,and a lngl or projection on the upper side thereof strikes the lever K,moving the damper np from the string.

Springsff are placed under the rear end of the damper-trame and abovefront end ot' the lever M, which bring the damper back in 'its .properposition as soon as the pressure isremoved from the front end of thelever.

By the arrangements above described any part 'of the action can beremoved for repair without taking out the whole action.

Having thus fully described my invention,

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Iate-nt, is`

The combination of the key C, blocks D and Hf hammer E, lever li,fulerum G, and combination-bar I, all constructed and operatingsubstantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my handthis lst day of July, 1870.

FRAZEE l5. MCGItEGOIi.

lVit-nesses:

A. W. BURTT, H. J. GnRLs.

